Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Beginning in April, we’re going to begin featuring regular reports on the Japanese gadget scene from Gen Kanai, our new Tokyo correspondent (and an excellent blogger in his own right). We’re looking forward to his first report. Gen brought up how it’d be great to have other people around the world helping Gizmodo get the…
Canon’s i320 color bubble jet printer is on sale for $44.18 after rebate over at Amazon. Read
Courtesy of BabelFish, a lengthy article, translated from its original Korean, about all the new PDA phones coming out from Samsung. Even if the translation is a little stilted, the photos alone are worth checking out, and the Sprint and Verizon logos emblazoned on several of these phones are a pretty strong indication that these…
Some pics have surfaced of a very thin-looking concept Tablet PCs from HP. No details on whether or not these will actually go into production. Read
Rather glowing review over at InfoWorld of the Nokia 3650, which combines a color screen with a digital camera, as well as handle capably handle your email. The 3650 also has built-in Bluetooth, so it can actually double as a wireless modem for a Bluetooth-enabled laptop. Too bad the phone itself is really ugly. Read
New Bluetooth card from Iogear that fits into the CompactFlash slot of a PDA. Read
Gotta love those rugged PDAs, you never know how rough conditions might get out there. The new Recon handheld from Tripod Data Systems is waterproof, and exceeds the military’s specifications for “drop, vibration and both high- and low-temperature operation.” Read
If you’ve got eight grand to drop on a monitor, you may as well go for the best and get the world’s highest resolution LCD monitor, the 22.2″ widescreen VP2290b from ViewSonic, which has ten times the pixel density of a regular LCD. Quake 3, and just about anything else, is guaranteed to look amazing…
The advantage Palm handhelds used to have over Pocket PCs was that they were cheaper, lighter, and smaller. But David Pogue of the New York Times points out that new lines of inexpensive Pocket PCs from Dell, HP, and ViewSonic have largely erased these distinctions. Read
CNET article on how just about every kind of gadget is joining the WiFi party. Read
For the voyeurs in the house, new binoculars from Meade that come with a built-in digital camera for capturing all those special moments you’re peeking at from afar. Read
PC World makes its predictions for the next couple of years. Among them: much smaller desktop computers; 15″ LCD monitors drop below $200; and the rise of Universal Plug and Play, which lets lots of different gadgets like TVs, stereos, digital cameras, and digital entertainment hubs connect together on a network. Read
Now longer something just out of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons – a scientist in Japan has created a coat that makes whoever is wearing it invisible, at least if you happen to be looking at them from the right angle. Read
BSQUARE still hasn’t gotten anyone to agree to manufacture its supposed BlackBerry killer. If it actually ever does come out, the BSQUARE device would be a lot more powerful than a Blackberry, and has a 400MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, a 640×480 color screen, and runs Windows CE .NET. Read
New cellphone headset from Targus that uses noise cancelling technology that reduces background noise and makes it possible to hold a conversation no matter how loud your surroundings. Read
e.Digital’s iPod clone, the 20GB Odyssey 1000, is finally out, and has a few things the iPod lacks, like an FM radio and a digital voice recorder. Uses USB 2.0 for file-transfer. Read [Thanks, Terry]
In another bad sign for the company’s future prospects, TiVo is pulling out of the UK. Now Britons who want a personal video recorder are going to have to buy a PC with Windows XP Media Center Edition, like HP’s Media Center PC. Or else figure out how to hack TiVos and ReplayTVs sold in…
Videophones haven’t really caught on, mainly because they try to compress a video image over the narrow bandwidth of an analog telephone line. But there’s a new videophone from InnoMedia that skips the copper wires altogether and does everything over a broadband Internet connection, using Voice over IP for making regular telephone calls. Read [Via…
Atrios is fond of his new Norcent DP-300 DVD player, largely because it’s easy to make region-free, which means you can play DVDs regardless of their region code, i.e. DVDs from Europe, Asia, etc. Read Amazon
Blogs are about building relationships and trust, one relationship at a time. The bloggers that excite and provide value to their readers get traffic. One recent example is Gizmodo, a blog focused on “gadgets.” It is pulling 50,000-plus page views a week, just five months after launch. History has proven e-mailing to millions of people…